Because they have no better or more important business to conduct on behalf of the people of Indiana, the Senate's Judiciary Committee wasted a half of a day debating a constitutional amendment, which has already been declared dead this year, simply to show how much fun they have attacking gay people. The Committee passed SJR-7, the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages and the recognition of any legal incidents of married for unmarried straight or gay couples, on a 5-4 party-line vote.
Today's action was completely superfluous because the Indiana Senate already fulfilled its constitutional requirement to amend Indiana's constitution when it passed SJR-7 for the second, consecutive General Assembly last year. The House killed the proposal in committee last year, and the same House Rules Committee Chairman, Scott Pelath (D-Michigan City), has already declared that his committee will not take a vote on the unnecessary and mean-spirited amendment.
In case you were wondering, yes, same-sex marriages are still illegal in Indiana just as they have been througout the state's history. Nothing about that is going to change as a result of the failure of this amendment to be written into our constitution.
Meanwhile, over in the House, a couple of the more whacky legislators, Rep. Jeff Thompson (R)and Rep. Jackie Walorski (R), have once again filed killer amendments to Rep. Greg Porter's and Rep. Jon Elrod's hate crimes legislation, HB 1076, to prove to the world just how much they hate gay people. Maybe Harrison Ullman was right about our state having the worst legislature in the country.
13 comments:
Gary, it is obvious to many State House watchers that Thompson and Walorski are not comfortable with themselves, if you know what I mean. This is why they must pursue this issue because they think people will stop thinking that about them if they do this, but it really has the complete opposite effect. Really sad.
I'm a straight male and have always been that way, but at no time have I ever felt so threatened by other individuals' sexuality that I feel they need to be restricted to the point of redundancy.
While we're at it, why don't we pass laws making robbery, murder & rape even MORE illegal. Seems to me the local court system is more lax for criminals than the gay community.
Who would want these people in the family? I say we set up a committee to determine who's allowed to come out. And THEIR names would be on the bottom of the list.
Especially Wacky-lorski and that helmet hair. Damn, gurl, get some gay and a good hairdresser!
Their misdirection got you off of talking about taxes for awhile. They're probably patting themsleves on the back right now about it.
Well, the way I hear it, the gay people have themselves a Gay Agenda. And, without this Constitutional Amendment, our heterosexual marriages will be dissolved and we'll be forced into gay unions.
Makes all of this fuss about property taxes seem positively silly.
Doug, you're one of the smart cute ones. I'm gonna sign up for you when we get power.
:-)
Uh, yes, Gary...with maybe 12-15 total exceptions out of 150 members, Harrison Ullman was right. In triplicate.
Kindly post the names of the membrs of the Committee, so we can thank the Democrats, and really thank the Republicans. Cause God knows they had loads of time to spend on this bill, seeing that they passed it last year and needed no further action.
Kicking someone twice is usually considered mean. In this case, it's stupid and mean. And pandering.
oh those republicans......and what rock did Doug crawl out from under......
LLighten up, 6:32, Doug wa kidding. Pretty funny, too.
Anyone else think Doug looks eerily like Kip Tew?
Yikes...
The Dems were Senators Broden, Lanane, Smith and Arnold.
The Republicans were Senators Bray, Alting, Zakas, Steele and Drozda.
Sen. Ford is dying of cancer and Sen. Lubbers was oddly NOT PRESENT.
If just one of those other Rep Senators had not shown up, this thing woulda died in a 4-4 tie.
So what do we do about this? I'm new to the area and noticing a real lack of advocacy groups (for anything) here in Indy. Beyond letters to our reps, how does one make her displeasure known around here?
Actually K there is a group that has been working on this for years. www.indianaequality.org
Check it out and get involved.
Turner filed an amendment to HJR1 (property tax reform) with the exact language of SJR7.
So much for death.
Gary - can't you control your republicans? Honestly, how can you continue to support them with this unrelenting assault?
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